March Madness isn’t just for basketball. It is for college wrestling, too. The NCAA meet starts at 11 a.m. today at Des Moines’ Wells Fargo Arena. Here are three things to look for, courtesy of N-G wrestling beat writer Bob Asmussen:

Twelve years ago Sunday, coach Mark Johnson’s Illini wrestling program had two athletes win NCAA titles at the championships in Iowa City, Iowa. Adam Tirapelle (149 pounds) and John Lockhart (heavyweight) were individual titlists, leading Illinois to fifth place in the standings, its highest finish since a third-place showing in 1948. Tirapelle ended his season at 31-2.

Today wraps up my fourth year of writing from the Big Ten wrestling tournament. I am not sure I have witnessed better wrestling than what I witnessed on Sunday. The fans were treated to some outstanding head-to-head matchups, some outstanding individual performances and a great team race that went down to the wire.

CHAMPAIGN — Earlier in the week, the local newspaper asked the Illinois wrestling starters three fun survey questions. For “give us your WWE name,” Jesse Delgado answered “Jesse.” He wasn’t in a mood to play along. Turns out he had something more serious on his mind: winning the Big Ten title.